Neutering and anxiety
Yes, yet another "should I neuter my dog?" thread... But I swear this one has special circumstances!
The backstory: I have a six month old puppy. Not a NK, but a small breed. I have had him since he was about 3 months old, and he has exhibited anxiety ever since the beginning. In some ways it has improved, and in other ways it has gotten worse. I have a plan of action to reduce his separation anxiety and it seems to be working, but his dog reactivity is starting to get out of control.
When I first mentioned it to my vet, (and yes, I know vets are not behaviorists) she mentioned I might want to keep him intact because it could boost his confidence. That was all well and good when he was 3-4 months old, but now that he is 6 months and the testosterone is obviously starting to kick in, I wonder if it's causing added stress. Would his dog reactivity be eased at all if he were neutered? Should I just wait it out and see what happens?
I hope you guys can help me shed some light on this... It's my first time dealing with a severely anxious dog and at times I feel very overwhelmed.
The backstory: I have a six month old puppy. Not a NK, but a small breed. I have had him since he was about 3 months old, and he has exhibited anxiety ever since the beginning. In some ways it has improved, and in other ways it has gotten worse. I have a plan of action to reduce his separation anxiety and it seems to be working, but his dog reactivity is starting to get out of control.
When I first mentioned it to my vet, (and yes, I know vets are not behaviorists) she mentioned I might want to keep him intact because it could boost his confidence. That was all well and good when he was 3-4 months old, but now that he is 6 months and the testosterone is obviously starting to kick in, I wonder if it's causing added stress. Would his dog reactivity be eased at all if he were neutered? Should I just wait it out and see what happens?
I hope you guys can help me shed some light on this... It's my first time dealing with a severely anxious dog and at times I feel very overwhelmed.
Comments
It has not changed the behavior my best friend's border terrier at all either, but he was never reactive (and if he were anymore confident he'd rule the world! Terriers!)
The only changes I saw in my akita (neutered at a year old) were that his sex related behaviors stopped, as in he stopped licking up the female's pee. He lost a bit of his swagger, but honestly, I don't think that was confidence, I think it was he simply doesn't have a big scrotum to swing around anymore! (I know that sounds funny, but he does walk a bit different without it). He's getting a bit more confident, and less tolerant with other dogs as he gets older, and it doesn't seem to have much to do with neutering.
So....I'm pretty dubious that it does much more than stop clearly sex-related behaviors.
I think that neutering him would cause less anxiety in the long run. If you have an intact male and there is an intact female in the fairly near vicinity, when that female comes into heat, your pup will become quite anxious to get to her.
However... The neutering process will cause anxiety in the short term, especially if he is not comfortable with the vet's office to begin with.
As for the confidence issue, I doubt keeping him intact with increase his confidence or decrease his reactivity.
If it were me in that situation, if he were comfortable with the vet's office (or comfortable enough, I suppose), then I would opt for the neuter.
If the dog was anxious from the get go, and that is his tendency, and he is reactive with other dogs, which is getting worse, I would think training and behavior modification would be more impacting then neutering, but I would still probably neuter. Can you run him with some older, mellow, very confident dogs who will correct him, but not harshly? Perhaps try some classes like agility where he will have to learn to work near other dogs on leash, where he can have fun, but not worry about them getting into his space.
So from what I've gathered, there is probably no link between being intact and anxiety. He will be neutered eventually, it's just a question of when. My vet is a holistic vet so she prefers to neuter after physical maturity or not at all.
I did my best to socialize him, but like I said, he was anxious even before he came to live with me. I wish I'd known before I agreed to take him because I simply do not have enough experience to do best by him. I think I did okay with human socialization, he is a little shy still but will wag his tail for friendly strangers. He does bark at young children, but this is mostly my fault since I don't know a lot of toddlers. He also occasionally barks at men, I haven't figured out exactly what triggers this.
The dog reactivity is strange to me. At first it was just fearful behaviour when we saw another dog; he would hide behind me, fur standing on end, until the other dog went away. This progressed into full on barking at the other dog, and now snarling/growling upon approach. It happens more often with large dogs than small/medium ones. I definitely don't want this behaviour to continue. But here's the weird part: he can do this to another dog, and then suddenly decide he's "safe" I guess and solicit play. Then if the dog walks away a certain distance and comes back, or we're meeting a familiar dog on another day, he repeats the process. For a while I was trying to redirect whenever another dog came near and reward him when he didn't bark/react. If he started to bark, I would turn and walk him some distance away. I thought I was making progress, but now it doesn't seem to be working. I need to come up with another strategy.
We just spent 3 weeks with my mom, and her Boxer Jack is excellent with puppies, firm with corrections but not harsh. My sister's Jack Russel was also there and they played quite a bit. He did fairly well at puppy class, where we learned some intro obedience around other dogs. I would love to get him to an agility class, but it's not feasible at the moment since I don't have a car and they take place in the boonies. I am probably going to try to find a behaviorist that is willing to come to my house to work with me, and not charge an arm and a leg.
Phew, that was longer than I intended. I just wanted to say thanks.
Snf
http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/DevelopmentalStages.html is my go-to resource for puppy developmental stages. Your dog may be in the second fear period (high reactivity) from 6 to 14 months of age.
The reactivity issues sound similar to what I am going through with my girl, Gojira, right now. She is highly reactive with house guests (even those she grew up seeing every week since she was 10 weeks old) or when we go visit her best canine friends (again, seen them at least once or twice a month since she was 10 weeks old). She'll bark, cower, and shake with the familiar people; she'll growl, snarl, and even attack her doggy playmates. This only lasts 10-20 minutes and then she's absolutely fine. She'll be up in the person's face licking them and demanding pets or romping with the other dogs. So when we have guests I just ignore her until she calms down, when I take her out to see her canine friends I keep her on tight control until I feel her relax. This has only been happening for the past 8 months or so, but she should be well past the second fear period. I've come to the conclusion that she gets over-excited and doesn't know how to properly express herself.
I have taken to referring to her as my Snarly Princess because of how cranky she can be. It really doesn't take much for her to get mad at and hold a grudge against my other girl, Gryphon. We've learned to separate them quickly and then in a short time do a careful reintroduction. The longer we keep them apart, the worse it is to put them back together. She gets all worked up seeing the other dog on the other side of the sliding door but not able to interact. Doors are a real problem in general for us, but having chain link runs and wire crates has really helped with the occasional separation and we have much less problems.
I didn't mean to imply that I'm "done" socialization, I know it is an ongoing process. We still meet people all the time. I was just referring to the first couple months he was with me.
I think he's making progress. On walks, when we pass a person, I ignore him if he barks, reward him if he stays quiet, and jackpot if he willingly approaches someone while quiet. He gets the idea in this regard, but it doesn't seem to transfer over to dogs. It's really frustrating at times, especially yesterday when he went to the vet... they told me I should get a martingale collar and yank the leash every time he barks. Somehow this doesn't sound like it would help his anxiety.
Sometimes I wonder if the common factor is me. The barking is definitely worse when he's walking with me as opposed to my SO. He also goes to doggy daycare a couple times a week, where he seems to be fine with other dogs. In that case I wonder if easing his separation anxiety will also help with these problems.